The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a version of the Internet Protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that is designed to replace Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 includes many key enhancements to the Internet Protocol, including a much larger address space and improved routing protocols. Another distinguishing feature of IPv6 is Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC).
SLAAC, which is defined by Request for Comments (RFC) 4862 of the IETF, is a distributed address assignment process that enables network hosts to automatically configure their interfaces when connected to an IPv6 network. Typically, the assignment mechanism involves a host automatically generating an address for itself, verifying the uniqueness of the address, and assigning the address to one of its interfaces. Thus, SLAAC allows hosts to generate and assign their own IPv6 addresses with minimal configuration of routers and without manual configuration or additional servers.
Many network operators prefer SLAAC to other configuration protocols, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6 (DHCPv6), because of its simplicity and scalability. SLAAC does not require centralized configuration servers for address assignment, which reduces network overhead. Furthermore, SLAAC is ubiquitously supported by many current host operating systems (OSes), whereas many host OSes still do not support other configuration protocols, such as DHCPv6.
Despite SLAAC's benefits, some network operators still rely on stateful configuration servers for host configuration because network operators and service providers are currently unable to track hostnames through SLAAC. As many network operators prefer using hostnames instead of IPv6 addresses to manage network devices, the use of SLAAC becomes prohibitive.